MobileTM - DataEquity/OTB Consulting - Time Matters

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MobileTM is a PDA portal solution from Data Equity that provides real-time, anytime access to your Time Matters data. Serving up any or all of the 18 record types in Time Matters, it works with the iPhone, Treo Palm and Windows, Blackberry, and any SmartPhone that uses the Palm, Windows or Symbian OS.

Tired of syncing and linking to your SmartPhone/PDA?

Want your Time Matters data on your iPhone?

Want to let everyone in the office use the SmartPhone of their choice?

Want real-time access to all your data, including the records related to Cases and Matters?

If so, visit the OTB Consulting web site for more detailed information including screenshots and live demo test site access.

Platform/Requirements:

From the Client side:

A SmartPhone/PDA that is browser capable, with Internet connectivity including:

iPhone

Palm

Blackberry

Windows Mobile

Symbian

From the Server side:

A Windows server or workstation with access to the Internet and your Time Matters database.

Ports open on your firewall.

MS SQL Server 2000 or greater or Express editions of SQL Server.

A static IP Address (a free dynDNS alias will work)

For Time Matters:

Enterprise Versions 7, 8 or 9

Pricing:

MobileTM is priced as follows:

$300 for the server and administrator component, per year.

$100 per User, per year.

For example, if your firm has 3 people who want to use SmartPhones to access their Time Matters data, the yearly fee is $600.

The yearly fee covers all updates to the server/administrator component, and technical support. Because MobileTM uses a browser on the PDA, there is no software on the PDA to be upgraded. Update the server, and the next time a PDA accesses MobileTM, the changes will be reflected.

Your MobileTM licenses DO NOT have to match your Time Matters user licenses - if you have a 10 user Time Matters license, but only 3 people in your office have SmartPhones and want to access their data, you only need 3 MobileTM licenses .

Although I have been working with TM for a while, I am relatively new to the forums and may not even be in the right place. And, I know your post is over a year old so I really may be behind in this area but .... Here goes. Now that TM is functioning and everybody has at least some involvement with it, I am starting to introduce expanded capabilities and my users are asking for the ability to use TM "on the road".

Our attorneys use mobile devices which are Verizon - mostly Samsung Omnia units - with Windows Mobil 6.1 Professional. We are using Exchange Sync which gives us our email, to do lists, calendars and contacts. We have those all Sync'ing with TM using Exchange sync so for the most part we have information flowing between Outlook and TM and the TM information back to Outlook which then syncs with the phones. That all works pretty well.

However, we have a number of users who spend most of their time away form the office but, for whom their phones are just not enough. They connect back to the office by VPN on their laptops. It works great for all of our other programs, printers and peripherals. Their biggest problem is using TM. Our work around is for them to use it via remote desktop which works fine unless their desktop machine is not available. Others are laptop users with no desktop and an alternate machine is not always available. Have you developed a way to access TM through VPN (other than using Remote Desktop or Login or GoTo) that doesn't run at a snail's pace? If I go direct it takes forever to load and reconnect drives etc. and half the time it doesn't find the TM database. Tech Support says they don't support any mobile or remote applications period, which I understand but ...my users are getting more mobile by the day. We are currently using TM version 9 - 3B Enterprise. I am wondering if I have missed something somewhere that supports mobile users. Can you help?

Check out the list of practice management White Papers on the Time Matters support site:

http://support.lexisnexis.com/LNOTM/record.asp?ArticleID=6960

Once there, look for a paper called "Running Time Matters in a Citrix Environment." Although LexisNexis does not officially support Citrix, they have been kind enough to supply a white paper to help firms decide whether this is a solution that meets their needs. I have a 20-user Time Matters client firm where 5 of their users are located in 3 states that are remote from the main database. Citrix allows them all to log into the same physical machine and be working as though they are connected to a desktop. It requires a little work to get it set up, but if it works for you it's likely more cost-effective than providing several extra desktops for remote connections.

Another possible remote solution would involve maintaining "clones" of the main database on each laptop, but this requires synchronizing on a regular basis and has occasionally been known to become problematic after a while and require that new clones be created.

Expanding on Karen's post, I would say that Microsoft terminal services (or Citrix) would solve your problem. Any competent network support company can discuss your needs and spec out the best solution. It is not a Time Matters-specific solution at all, although having someone knowledgeable in Time Matters review the specs would be a good idea. Many firms use this solution for remote access to Time Matters, Word, Acrobat, Outlook, etc., from a remote office, home, the courthouse, etc. It is not a cutting edge/pioneer solution.